ANC decides to back Ramaphosa, will vote against adopting Phala Phala report

ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) has resolved that party members in Parliament will vote against the adoption of the Phala Phala report.

Addressing the media following the NEC’s meeting on Monday, ANC treasurer-general Paul Mashatile, said the decision was taken on the basis that President Cyril Ramaphosa is taking the report on review.

Mashatile said the NEC did not take any decision for Ramaphosa should step down nor did he offer to resign.

“There was no decision that he can’t continue,” the treasurer-general said.

He further denied the suggestion that the ANC was shielding Ramaphosa.

“We are not preventing the president from accounting… there are other processes currently underway. The president will continue to be held accountable.”

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The NEC deliberated on the Phala Phala scandal following the Section 89 panel’s finding, in its report, that the president has a case to answer on the February 2020 robbery.

The National Working Committee (NWC) also met on Sunday, and recommended that ANC members in Parliament vote against the panel’s report.

A majority of 201 votes is needed when voting takes place in the National Assembly on Tuesday.

Ramaphosa filed his papers at the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) on Monday.

The president has asked the apex court to review and set aside the Phala Phala report, arguing that he was of the view that the panel “accordingly exceeded its mandate”.

Secret ballot

On Monday, National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula reject a request from the African Transformation Movement (ATM) to have the Phala Phala report voted by secret ballot.

The ATM, which filed the Section 89 motion against Ramaphosa, had asked for a secret ballot vote last week.

“In her letter to the ATM president, the Speaker said she believes that a closed voting procedure will deprive the citizens of identifying the positions of their representatives across party lines and that this may facilitate the possibility of corruption aimed at influencing members to vote in a manner where they will be shielded from accountability to the people they represent for the exercise of their constitutional duty,” Parliament spokesperson Moloto Mothapo said in a statement.

“An open and transparent procedure followed by the Assembly to exercise this important decision on the Section 89 independent panel report, can only bring about public trust and confidence in the Assembly and our democratic dispensation.”

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